Members:
K.Y. AMOAKO - Ghana
Eveline HERFKENS - Netherlands - Acting Chairperson
Nagesh KUMAR - India
LI Lailai - China
David RUNNALLS - Canada
Simon S.C. TAY - Singapore
Simon ZADEK - United Kingdom
Distinguished Fellows:
Sylvia OSTRY - Canada
Mark HALLE - United States of America
Dr. K.Y. AMOAKO
President of the African Center for Economic Transformation (ACET)
K.Y. Amoako led the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) from 1995-2005 at the rank of Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations. Under his leadership the ECA was transformed to more effectively serve African policy makers, to amplify the African voice internationally, and to influence African partners. He has emerged as an influential advisor to African leaders, ministers and other senior policymakers on various areas including macroeconomic policies, international trade, regional integration and good governance. And he advocated for and led the conceptualization of key principles of the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) and other pan-African and regional initiatives.
Mr. Amoako has served alongside leading development experts and political leaders and on high-level international commissions and task forces, addressing the development prospects of Africa and many of today’s central global issues. He is Chair of the Commission for HIV/AIDS and Governance in Africa, convened by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and was a member of the Commission for Africa established and chaired by Prime Minister Tony Blair. He was also a member of the Global Information and Infrastructure Commission, the World Bank Institute’s Advisory Council, and the Taskforce on Global Public Goods co-chaired by former President Ernesto Zedillo. Previously he served on the Commission on Capital Flows to Africa and on the World Health Organization’s high-level Commission on Macroeconomics and Health chaired by Prof. Jeffrey Sachs.
Prior to ECA, Mr. Amoako was Director of the Education and Social Policy Department at the World Bank providing strategic leadership for the Bank’s programs on poverty reduction, education, gender, labor markets, and social protection. He was a Distinguished African Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center, Washington DC, in 2006. He obtained his Ph.D in Economics from the University of California at Berkeley and was awarded a Doctor of Laws degree, honoris causa, by the Addis Ababa University in 2003, and a Doctor of Letters degree, honoris causa, by the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana, in 2005, both in recognition of his contribution to Africa’s development. Mr. Amoako was selected in July, 2007 by an influential US magazine Vanity Fair as one of two individuals who have done more to move Africa’s economy forward than any.
Mr. Amoako has recently established the African Center for Economic Transformation (ACET) in Accra, Ghana to promote high-quality policy analysis and advisory services to African governments with the objective of achieving long-term sustained growth and transformation of African economies. ACET is in response to two institutional challenges to African development: the need to improve the capacities of African governments to formulate and implement informed and sustainable economic policies; and, the need to increase the ownership of and accountability in the development process among African governments.
~*~*~*~
Ms. Eveline HERFKENS
UN Secretary General’s Executive Coordinator
Millennium Development Goals Campaign
The Secretary-General appointed Eveline Herfkens as the Executive Coordinator for the Millennium Development Goals Campaign in October 2002. Prior to this appointment, Ms. Herfkens served as the Netherlands Minister for Development Cooperation (between 1998 to 2002). During this time, she was also a Member of the World Bank and IMF Development Committee and a Co-founder of the Utstein-Group. Presently she is a member of the World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization established by the International Labour Organization (ILO) in February 2002.
Ms. Herfkens served as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary and Permanent Representative of the Netherlands at the United Nations and other international organizations-including the World Trade Organization (WTO)-in Geneva (between 1996 to 1998). Ms. Herfkens was an Executive Director of the World Bank Group in Washington D.C. (between 1990 and 1996).
Ms. Herfkens was a Member of Parliament in the Netherlands (between 1981 to 1990). She served as Member and Counselor-Treasurer of Parliamentarians for Global Action (between 1985 to 1990). She was also a Member of the Economic Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and Co-organizer of the North-South Campaign. Ms. Herfkens was a Policy Officer in the field of development cooperation at the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs (between 1986 to 1989).
Ms. Herfkens has also served on the Council of the Labour Party. She has been Chair of the Evert Vermeer Foundation, Chair of the Dutch Fair Trade Organization and a Member of the Development Committee of the Netherlands Council of Churches.
Ms. Herfkens studied Law and Economics at Leiden University and graduated in 1975.
~*~*~*~
Dr. Nagesh KUMAR
Director-Macroeconomic Policy and Development Division
United Nations ESCAP
Since May 2009, UN Under-Secretary-General Noeleen Heyzer, the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), appointed Mr. Nagesh Kumar of India, as Chief of the Macroeconomic Policy and Development Division. Mr. Kumar will serve as the chief economist for ESCAP.
Previously, Dr. Kumar was Director-General of RIS in October 2002. Dr Nagesh Kumar obtained his PhD in Economics from the Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi. Dr Kumar joined RIS in 1985 after holding teaching and research positions at the University of Delhi, Indian Institute of Public Administration and National Institute of Science Technology and Development Studies. During 1993-1998, Dr Kumar served on the faculty of the United Nations University - Institute for New Technologies (UNU/INTECH), Maastricht, the Netherlands, and directed its research on FDI and technology transfers in developing countries. He has also served as a consultant to the World Bank, UNDP, UNCTAD, UNIDO, UN-ESCAP, ILO, among other organizations. He received the Exim Bank of India’s first International Trade Research Award in 1989 and shared a GDN Medal awarded by the World Bank in 2000. He has written extensively on the developmental impact of MNEs and FDI, industrial and technology development policy, the challenge of new technologies for development, on regional economic co-operation, and WTO and development, among other themes.
~*~*~*~
Dr. LI Lailai
Deputy Director of Stockholm Environment Institute
Li Lailai received her bachelor’s degree in English, and a master’s and a doctorate in sociology from the University of Pittsburgh in the United States. Prior to her appointment as the National Program Director of LEAD-China, Li Lailai worked as a research fellow at the Institute of Sociology and Anthropology at Peking University, where her research was focused on the interactions between the Chinese traditional values, agricultural activities and environmental impacts. She also served as Director of Information Resources at LEAD International (part time) from 1997 to 2001, She participates in the development of LEAD’s information strategy, thereby fulfilling her interest in exploring the role of information and information technology in the human endeavor toward the greater sustainability of society.
Her research experiences and areas lie in NGO development to meet the functional requirement / challenge of the society and exploration of alternative development paths toward global sustainability.
~*~*~*~
Mr. David RUNNALLS
President & CEO IISD
David Runnalls is President of IISD. He is a member of the Board of the Institute of Advanced Studies of the United Nations University. He is a member of the Advisory Council for Export Development Canada; a member of the Council for Sustainable Development Technology Canada; and a member of the Ivey Business School Leadership Council. He also serves on the Inquiry Team for Tomorrow’s Global Company, the SAM/SPG Leadership award, the International Sustainability Innovation Council of Switzerland (ISIS), and the Shell Report External Review Committee.
He has served as Co-Chair of the China Council Task Force on WTO and Environment. Runnalls was the Leopold Fellow at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and a member of the federal External Advisory Committee on Smart Regulation (EACSR). He served as Chair of the Adjudication Panel for the ALCAN Prize for Sustainability.
Runnalls has served as Senior Advisor to the President of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) in Ottawa, Canada, and to the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme. He was Director of the Environment and Sustainable Development Programme at the Institute for Research on Public Policy in Ottawa. He worked with Barbara Ward to found the International Institute for Environment and Development and directed both its London and Washington offices.
Runnalls was the Canadian Board member of IUCN-the World Conservation Union for six years and the Chair of the Committee for the World Conservation Congress in 1996. He served as a member of the Boards of the World Environment Center (New York), IIED (London) and Pollution Probe (Toronto).
An occasional writer and broadcaster, he has served as environment columnist for the CBC radio program, As it Happens and for CTV’s Canada am. He was a member of the Discovery Channel’s regular environment panel and political columnist for the Earth Times, the paper of record for the United Nations Earth Summit in 1992.
~*~*~*~
Prof. Simon S.C. TAY
Chairman of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs
Chairman of the National Environment Agency
A world-renowned lawyer, political adviser and environmental policy expert, Professor Simon S.C. Tay teaches international law at the University of Singapore. He is Chairman of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs, a non-governmental think tank, a member of the ASEAN-Institutes of Strategic and International Studies (ASEAN-ISIS), a “track-2” grouping of nine regional think-tanks that study and advise on international issues. Also, Prof. Tay is Editor (Singapore State Practice) of the Singapore Year Book of International Law and Executive Committee Member of the Asia-Pacific Centre for Environmental Law.
Prof. Tay serves on a number of civil society organizations and government bodies, including the Singapore Environment Council, and National Parks Board. In 1998-99, he served on the Singapore 21 committee, appointed by the Prime Minister to look at challenges in the next century. In 2000, he co-chaired a feedback committee for the Ministry of National Development to look at the city’s concept plan and issues concerning conservation. In Jan 2000, the World Economic Forum (Davos) named him a “global leader of tomorrow”.
He gained a Masters degree from Harvard - in the process winning the Law School’s Laylin Prize for the best thesis on international law - and practiced for four years in one of Singapore’s largest commercial law firms before leaving to help set up the Singapore International Foundation.
As well as being leading figure in Singapore public life - he served three terms as a Nominated Member of the Singapore Parliament, and has sat on numerous government boards and committees - he has gained an international reputation for his work on environmental and human rights issues.
He has acted as a consultant to, among others, the United Nations Environment Programme, the United Nations Development Programme, the Asian Development Bank and the Asia-Pacific Forum on Environment and Development. In 2000 the World Economic Forum (Davos) named him a ‘global leader of tomorrow’, while the Far Eastern Economic Review featured him as one of ‘ten people to watch in Asia’ in its 50th anniversary issue.
In addition to his legal, academic and public work he is a prolific journalist and also a published poet and author - his collection of short stories, Stand Alone, was short-listed for the Commonwealth Prize.
Prof Tay’s area of research interests are, in particular, issues related to environmental law and sustainable development, trade, investment and environment, Asian regionalism and institutions, governance and public international law and international relations.
~*~*~*~
Dr. Simon ZADEK
AccountAbility Chief Executive and Founder
Dr Simon Zadek, a British national, is Chief Executive of AccountAbility, a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Government and Business of Harvard University’s Kennedy School, and an Honorary Professor at the University of South Africa’s Centre for Corporate Citizenship. He sits on the International Advisory Board of Instituto Ethos, the Advisory Board of Generation Investment Management, the Board of the Employers’ Forum on Disability and the Council of GAN-NET. In 2003 he was named one of the World Economic Forum’s ‘Global Leaders for Tomorrow’.
AccountAbility is a non-profit, membership organization established in 1995 to promote accountability innovations that advance responsible business practices and the broader accountability of civil society and public organizations.
Dr Zadek is one of the leading big-picture global thinkers on corporate social responsibility and accountability. His previous roles include Visiting Professor at the Copenhagen Business School, the Development Director of the New Economics Foundation, and founding Chair of the Ethical Trading Initiative. He has served on numerous Boards and Advisory Councils, including the State of the World’s Commission for Globalisation, the ILO’s World Commission on the Social Dimensions of Globalisation, the UN Commission for Social Development Expert Group on CSR, and the founding Steering Committee of the Global Reporting Initiative.
He sits or has sat on a number of boards including the Global Alliance for Workers and Communities, the World Bank’s, the Copenhagen Centre, the Nordic Partnership and the GRI. He has also advised and consulted with textiles and apparel, mining and energy, pharmaceuticals, and finance sector businesses and NGOs in Europe, the USA and Africa.
He has supported many business’ efforts around the world in driving accountability innovations into their strategies and practices. His work has increasingly focused on facilitating businesses and their stakeholders in developing mutual understanding and collaborative initiatives. His work in this regard has been both at company level, for example for Gap Inc in their work around labour standards, and GE in its development of its approach to human rights, through to his convening role of the MFA Forum, a large-scale collaboration involving leading textiles and apparel companies, civil society and labour organisations, international development agencies and financing institutions, and national governments and business associations.
He has authored, co-authored, and co-edited numerous publications, including more recently two Harvard Working Papers on the role of multi-stakeholder partnerships in development and governance, Governing Partnership Governance (2006) and The Logic of Collaborative Governance (2005). He has written extensively on the impact of corporate responsibility on the competitiveness of nations Responsible Competitiveness (2005). His PhD thesis was published as The Economics of Utopia (1994), and published an anthology of his writings Tomorrow’s History (2004). His book, The Civil Corporation: the New Economy of Corporate Citizenship (2001), has become a classic in the field, and has been recognised by the Academy of Management by being honoured as the Best Book Social Issues Award 2006.
~*~*~*~